Refrigerated dough products have been popular for many years and continue to gain popularity for a number of reasons. First of all, refrigerated dough products are convenient. In most cases, consumers can prepare fresh baked goods in the home in a matter of minutes simply by unwrapping, separating and baking the dough products. Additionally, performing these steps satisfies a consumer need to perform a certain amount of "hands-on baking."
Although refrigerated dough products offer many advantages and are quite popular, those refrigerated dough products which include fillings also present many drawbacks. In particular, when large amounts of hot liquid fillings are utilized in these products, it is difficult to form the dough into shapes around the filling, as the filling imparts a slipperiness to the dough and adversely affects the dough's characteristics. Thus, specialized on-line processing equipment, such as cooling tunnels, must be utilized to produce dough products which contain large amounts of filling. Also, when fillings containing water are used in refrigerated dough products other problems occur causing adverse effects on the dough's characteristics, particularly if the dough is stored prior to being baked. Also, upon baking of the dough products, moisture can migrate out of the filling into the dough. As a result, the quality of the filling is degraded and a dry, powdery, cracked layer of dry ingredients is left in the place of the previously moist filling. Furthermore, the quality of the baked product surrounding the filling may be adversely affected by the absorption of water from the filling.
Thus, there is a need for stable, moist, fillings with improved textural and organoleptic characteristics for use with refrigerated dough products.